Ferrari Mailing List: Are Ferraris Losing Their Good Looks?

[Larry B (larrybard]

NYT article (sans pictures), for those who might be interested.
 
November 10, 2008, 3:37 pm 
Are Ferraris Losing Their Good Looks?
By Richard Chang

Gavin Green of Car magazine in Britain raised an issue I’ve thought about quite 
a bit lately: that Ferraris “aren’t gorgeous anymore.”
Mr. Green took issue with the fat rear end of the new California model, but 
didn’t stop there. “The 612 is fussy and ill-proportioned,” he said. “The Enzo 
is more bug than bird. Even the F430 lacks the visual grace and profile poetry 
of the old F355, the last lovely Ferrari.”
Mr. Green points to its recent Formula One drivers, Michael Schumacher and Kimi 
Raikkonen, both staid individuals, and asks: Has Ferrari lost that innate 
Italian coolness?
More likely, it has to do with aerodynamics. And Mr. Green recounts a recent 
conversation with Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari. “He said the 
styling was dictated by aerodynamics and the need to keep a Ferrari glued to 
the road at 180-plus,” Mr. Green writes. “That’s why the Enzo is all wedge and 
scoops and slats and chunky lines. That big fat rump of the California — more 
bustle bum than bikini bottom — helps aero performance, or so Luca says.”
It hasn’t helped that a whole slew of beautiful vintage Ferraris were on the 
auction block this year, including Steve McQueen’s 1963 250 GT/L Berlinetta 
Lusso and this 1961 250 California Spyder once owned by James Coburn:They don’t 
design them like the 1961 Ferrari 250 California Spyder anymore.